ROMAN FIGURINE

43

A cast copper-alloy probably Roman minature dog figurine. The dog is sitting down on a hexagonal stand. It is 39mm in total height. The dog is three dimensional, sitting on its back legs and facing forwards. It is 33mm in height and its rounded body is c12mm in width. It has a small head with drilled circular indentations representing its eyes. The nose is short and the face seems to resemble a modern day pug. The ears are long and oval shaped. The body is solid and the two front legs long thin and straight. The paws are rectangular with incisions to depict the dogs toes. The back legs are tucked beneath the dogs body and the back feet are parallel with the front feet. The dog appears to have no tail but there is a circular groove around where the tail should be. The dog is sitting on a hexagonal stand which tapers towards its base, this stand measures 19mm by 13mm in size and is 7mm thick. It seems to have a circular hole through its centre with a copper-alloy rod through it, visible from the upper face of the stand. This may have attached this object to another larger object which it was designed to have decorated. No parallel could be found from Suffolk for this miniature dog. It is most likely to be Roman in date.